Pokémorphs 4: The Gang
by Spirit Wolf
Summary: It turns out that a gang named 'The Muks' have been trying to find the Pokémorphs for a while after seeing that news report. They think they're much better than the Pokémorphs, and they want to prove it...
1. Chapter 1

This is the fourth in the Pokémorphs series. The story chronologically before this one is Pokémorphs #3: The Search.

Oh boy, this book. For starters, the cover is probably the worst by far. For some reason I would make the cover backgrounds using colors inspired by the cover morph, which was an awful idea. All the early covers do this because it took me a while to realize that contrast is a good thing, but this cover is particularly eye-gouging. So we've got a yellow and black Pikachu on a yellow and black background, and to top it off Lisa is also wearing yellow and black, ensuring the whole thing is a gigantic mess. Urgh.

This is also a rather silly filler book. It gets its inspiration from the goofier Animorphs books like #14 and #17. Take from that what you will. I apologize in advance.

**- Pokémorphs #4: The Gang -**

**Cover Quote:**

Lisa's attitude has become quite shocking...

**Plot:**

It turns out that a gang named 'The Muks' have been trying to find the Pokémorphs for a while after seeing that news report. They think they're much better than the Pokémorphs, and they want to prove it...

**Chapters:**

12.

**CHAPTER 1**

My name is Lisa. I live in Cerulean City.

My life has become totally weird lately. I've turned into Pokémon, fought with Scythers and Pinsirs, and generally had one long, strange adventure.

I mentioned turning into Pokémon. Well, I'm a Pokémorph. That means I can morph.

The rest of the Pokémorphs and I fight the Weederpies. The Weederpies are... well, I'm sure you know by now.

Anyway, Rachel and I were checking out the new mall. It's only just been completed, and only has a few shops so far, but one of those shops is the best Pokémart I've ever seen!

We were going through the place, looking for cool stuff. So far, Rachel had found a Charmander t-shirt and a Hypno hat, and I had found some Raichu socks. Okay, so we don't know how to dress.

"This Pokémart is so cool!" Rachel said. "I've never seen a Pokémart that sells t-shirts and stuff like that!"

"Yeah," I said, distracted. I was looking for something. Suddenly, I let out a squeal. "Oh! Here it is!" I reached out and grabbed something off the shelf.

"What have you... oh," Rachel said. She saw that I was holding a plush Pikachu toy. "And what makes that so special that it's different than these other stuffed Pikachus?"

"I'll show you," I said.

I pressed a button on the back.

"Pikachu, pikachuuu!" the toy said in a _real_ cute voice.

"Aaaaw!" Rachel and I chorused.

"It's so cute!" I said. "I must have it!"

"Hey, look who's here," Rachel said.

It was Boris. He was looking at an Electabuzz plush.

"Hi, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Oh! Um, I'm just, uh, you know, looking," he said.

He had something in one hand. It was some Bulbasaur underwear.

I heard Rachel giggling. I tried my best to suppress a grin. I failed.

"Oh, just laugh at me," Boris said bitterly.

"Sorry," Rachel said, managing to stop giggling.

I checked my watch. "I'd better go now," I said. "I got homework to do."

Rachel nodded. "Okay. I've still got some time left. I guess I'll go check out that computer store." She grinned.

"I'll go too!" Boris said.

Rachel and Boris are both madly into computers.

We went to the counter and paid for our stuff.

"Catch ya later!" I said.

"Okay, bye!" Rachel said, waving.

I left the mall, carrying my shopping bag which contained my Raichu socks and talking Pikachu.

It was about 5:00 pm, and I started heading back to my apartment building.

I froze. Up ahead, the road and path was blocked. They were laying down new cement. Great.

I turned to take a detour down a side alley, and almost ran right into some kids.

There were six of them. They were all wearing hats with the initials 'TM' on them.

And they looked like trouble.

**Author's Annotation:** I love how I started this chapter doing the old Animorphs-style recap and then realized it was pointless. The Animorphs books recapped the events which started the whole series every book, usually in the first or second chapter. It made sense because Scholastic probably needed such a long-running series to be accessible, so kids could pick up any book and still know what was going on. That doesn't apply for online stories though because they're all together and free on a website. There would be absolutely no reason for someone to start reading the series from a later book.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

They looked about my age.

"Hey," one kid said, stepping forward. "Are you Lisa?"

I felt adrenaline fill me. How did he know my name? Why were these kids looking for me?

"Who are you?" I asked, not answering his question.

He narrowed his eyes, but then grinned and pointed proudly to his hat. Or rather, the initials on his hat.

"We're TM!" he said. He held the brim of his hat with his right hand and put his left hand on his hip. A second later, the other five kids were standing in the same position.

_Man, these kids are strange,_ I thought.

"What's 'TM' stand for?" I asked.

The first boy, the one who had stepped forward (I assumed he was the leader of this little group), looked annoyed. Then, he said, "It stands for 'The Muks'."

"'The Muks'?" I asked.

"The Muks," the boy confirmed. "We're going to be the greatest Pokémon masters..." He paused.

"OF ALL TIME!" the other five kids yelled.

"Oooookaaay..." I said. "And why are you looking for Lisa?"

"We're not just looking for Lisa," the kid said. "We're looking for Rachel, Boris, and Michael as well. You know, those changing freaks who were on the news a few weeks ago?"

Changing freaks? _Changing freaks?! _

"Oh, them. Um, I saw them on the news, but I haven't actually met them."

"Are you sure? My dad showed me a picture someone took, and there's one kid who hangs around here that looks awfully like Boris. And there's -"

"Your dad?" I interrupted.

"Yeah," the kid said. "He's the news reporter."

"David?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's right. David. He saw the changing freaks firsthand."

"Look, it's 'Pokémorphs', okay? Uh... I mean... um..."

I felt my heart racing and my cheeks grow hot. I usually think a little before I say stuff, but sometimes, I'm just open-minded. And sometimes, I don't know when to shut up.

"Pokémorphs?" the kid asked. Then, he realized. "You _are_ Lisa, aren't you?"

I sighed. "Yeah." My heart was still racing. "What's your name?"

"TM1."

_Huh? TM1?_

"Is that, like, a nick-name in the gang or something?" I asked.

He nodded, then started pointing to each of his friends in turn. "That's TM2, that's TM3, that's -"

"TM4 and she's TM5," I finished.

TM1 frowned. "No, _he's_ TM5, and _she's_ TM4."

"Oh, well what about her?" I asked, pointing to the sixth and final member of the group.

"She's TM7," TM1 said.

"Why isn't she TM6?" I asked.

"Huh? Who's TM6?" TM1 asked, looking confused.

"Never mind," I sighed, seeing that this was going nowhere. "What I want to know is this: what do you want from us?"

"We've been thinking," TM1 said.

"A rare occurrence," another boy muttered. I think it was either TM2 or TM3. All these TMs! I'm getting confused!

"A fake Pokémon can't possibly be stronger than a real one," TM1 went on, not noticing the comment. "So... so we want to prove it."

"How?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

TM1 grinned. "Pokémon battle."

**Author's Annotation:** Yep, this is a silly filler story. Sillier than the Animorphs Helmacron books? You decide!

Also I'm not sure why Lisa used the term "open-minded" to explain why she blurted the Pokémorphs' secret. It didn't really fit.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

˂So let me get this straight: there's a bunch of kids who call themselves 'The Muks', and they nick-named each other 'TM1', 'TM2', and so on, and they missed out 'TM6' and instead made 'TM7'... and they think _we're_ the freaks?˃ Michael said.

"Uh, yeah, something like that," I said.

We were all in my apartment the next day after school.

˂And on top of all that, they want to challenge us to a Pokémon battle?˃

"Yep. Six versus six."

"Wait a minute, six versus six?" Rachel said. "They know about Bounce and Blitz?"

My face went bright pink. "Um, yeah. I kinda let that slip."

"Great," Boris said. "Our leader let two secrets slip in one conversation."

"Leader?" I asked.

Now it was Boris' turn to become embarrassed. He quickly looked away.

"Look, I'm not your leader. I just get you organized every now and then," I said.

Rachel, seeing that I was embarrassed (yet again), quickly changed the subject. "So, when are we supposed to fight these guys?"

"Saturday morning," I answered.

Today was Thursday.

"So what do we do until then?" Boris asked.

Everyone looked at each other. And everyone shrugged.

˂Blitz and I don't know much about Pokémon trainer battles,˃ Bounce said.

"Hey!" Boris said. "Why don't we all watch 'Great Pokéfights' tonight?"

Great Pokéfights is a show on every Thursday night. It shows tons of Pokémon trainer battles live and goes for about three hours.

"Okay," I said. "It starts at 5:00. Meet here at 4:45."

I felt kinda strange for two reasons. One: I felt like I was organizing us for a mission, but all we were really doing was watching something on TV. Two: I felt like I was bossing everyone around.

But Boris had said it: I was the leader. And if I was stuck being the leader, I was gonna be a good leader.

Wasn't I?

––––––––––

I basically sat around until 4:45. I was thinking a lot.

I sat there on the couch and stared at the little talking Pikachu toy I had in my hands.

I remembered _being_ a Pikachu.

Pikachus are quick, small, and very energetic. Literally.

Finally, Rachel and Boris knocked on my door. I let them in, then saw that Rachel was carrying a backpack.

She opened it and out bounded a Mankey.

I mean, if we had just carried a Mankey up here, it would look slightly suspicious. That's why Michael had to go into a backpack.

I opened my window, and a few minutes later, two Spearows flew in.

Boris made himself comfortable on the couch. "Well? Come on! Get comfy! It starts in 5 minutes!"

I turned on the TV.

We all sat down on the couch and just waited for 'Great Pokéfights' to start.

**Author's Annotation:** Our heroes are... getting ready to watch TV. Definitely a slow week in the battle against evil. But as a kid I really enjoyed the idea of hours worth of televised Pokémon battles, as if it's the most popular sporting competition in the Pokémon world. I couldn't resist the chance to write about it.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

It started! The announcer appeared on the screen.

"Welcome to 'Great Pokéfights'!" he said.

˂Hee hee!˃ Blitz chuckled. ˂That human has fur around his mouth!˃

"If you'll remember last week, Killer Carl destroyed all opponents with his fearsome grass attacks! Tonight, he'll have to face Sally Slayer, the ghost expert! Plus, we have many more fights..." The announcer yapped on like that for a while.

˂Why does everyone have such stupid names in this?˃ Michael asked.

"I have no idea," I said.

"And now! Our first match of the week!" the announcer said. "It's Fearless Frank versus Terrifying Tony! And you can see the tension between these two trainers."

Two men were now standing on either side of the arena.

"And Fearless Frank has chosen his first Pokémon. It's..."

Frank threw a Pokéball which split open to release the Pokémon inside. It was a... Ponyta!

"It's a Ponyta!" the announcer cried. "And now Terrifying Tony has chosen his first Pokémon. It's... Fearow! The two are preparing to battle. These two Pokémon are quite strong and evenly matched..."

The fights went on like that for a while.

I got some popcorn I bought earlier and we all shared it, even Bounce and Blitz.

Bounce and Blitz do have mouths, but you can't see them when they're closed. They're hidden by their bulge-like snouts.

Blitz leaned back into the couch. He didn't realize he was leaning against my Pikachu toy. Then...

"Pikachu, pikachuuu!"

˂YAAAH! It's alive!˃ Blitz leaped up from the couch.

We all laughed, except Bounce and Blitz of course. Bounce just stared at us and Blitz started inspecting the Pikachu toy in fascination.

"PIKACHUUU!"

I glanced up at the TV. The current battle just happened to involve a Pikachu. It was Pikachu versus Hypno.

The Pikachu leaped forward, then sent out a huge blast of electricity.

The Hypno was knocked off its feet, but quickly got back up again.

"Come on Pikachu!" I said. "You can do it!"

"Let's go, Hypno!" Rachel cried. "Come on! Hypnotize him!"

The Hypno, as if it had heard Rachel, started swinging its pendulum. You couldn't see the sleep waves, but they were there.

The Pikachu suddenly sat down. "Piiikaaa?"

The Hypno lowered its head, then delivered a head-butt.

The Pikachu managed to climb to its feet, and it sent out another blast of electricity.

"Hypno!" the Hypno yelled. It suddenly fired off a cloud of gas which surrounded the Pikachu.

The poor, poisoned Pikachu raced forward, swiftly and accurately attacking the Hypno.

The Hypno was startled, but attempted to head-butt the Pikachu again. Missed!

"Yeah! Go Pikachu!" I cried.

"Aw, Hypno! Come on!" Rachel cried.

The Pikachu started running, going straight for the Hypno. It got closer... closer... closer... It leaped!

And at the same time, the Hypno raised its hand, preparing to use some kind of powerful, psychic attack.

The Pikachu was about to hit! The Hypno was about to attack!

Suddenly, the TV screen went black.

"Okay, that's enough," Boris said, putting down the remote control. "It's getting late and I'm going back to my apartment to make myself something for dinner."

**Author's Annotation:** What's with professional Pokémon battlers using unevolved Pokémon like Ponyta and Pikachu? I have no idea.

Also if it wasn't obvious, Rachel was my self-insert character. I liked Hypno, so Rachel likes Hypno. I was going to give Blitz a Drowzee/Hypno morph as his new battle morph later in the series, but I didn't end up writing that far.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

"DINNER?!" Rachel and I yelled.

"Yeah, it's 7:30," Boris said.

"QUICK! TURN IT BACK ON!" I yelled.

Rachel snatched the remote and turned the TV back on.

The announcer was standing there, saying, "...spectacular! That was a once-in-a-lifetime-battle!"

"AARGH! YOU LITTLE..." Rachel proceeded to strangle Boris.

I sighed. "Oh well, Pikachu was about to win, anyway."

Rachel stopped strangling Boris. "_Pikachu?_ You must be joking! Hypno was about to send Pikachu flying!"

Boris rolled his eyes. "Girls. I'll never understand the-"

He was interrupted as Rachel started to strangle him again.

˂Hey! Um, I've got an idea,˃ Michael said. ˂Why don't you three go to Cerulean Gym tomorrow?˃

Rachel stop strangling Boris again. "Cerulean Gym?"

˂Yeah! You could... you know... watch some battles.˃

I shrugged. "Okay, why not?"

"What about you?" Rachel asked.

˂We could just go looking in the fields for trainers who are battling,˃ Michael said. ˂Lots of trainers battle there after school.˃

"Okay," I said. "So, tomorrow, Boris, Rachel, and I check out Cerulean Gym, and Michael, Bounce, and Blitz will go find some battling trainers."

"Okay," Boris said. "I've always wanted to go to the Gym."

––––––––––

It was the next day after school. Boris, Rachel, and I were headed for the Cerulean Gym.

"You know, I've always wanted to meet Misty," Boris said. "She sounds quite cool."

"If we're lucky, we might even see her battling with someone," Rachel said.

"There's supposed to be, like, a big pool or something in the Gym," I said.

We stopped. We were there.

"Cerulean Gym," I said. "Come on."

We went inside and found ourselves in a large room - a _very_ large room - with a pool right in the middle.

Around the place were tons of trainers, some battling, some talking, and some swimming. Most of the trainers here were female.

"Big," Rachel commented.

"Real big," I agreed.

I noticed a girl walking towards us. She had blonde hair and looked a little older than us.

"Hi," she said. "I haven't seen you around here before. Who are you?"

"I'm Lisa. This is Boris and Rachel," I said.

"I'm Daisy," she said. "Are you here to battle Misty?"

"No, we're not Pokémon trainers."

"Oh. Then why are you here?"

"Actually, we're more like soon-to-be Pokémon trainers," Rachel said. "We came just so we could watch some Pokémon battles."

"Ah," Daisy said. "Well, there's plenty of battles happening in here. Just have a look around."

"Thanks," Boris said.

Daisy went off to greet some other trainers who were just entering.

We walked towards two battling trainers. It was Oddish versus Goldeen.

"Come on Goldeen! Horn Attack!" the Goldeen's trainer, a girl, said.

"Goldeen," the Goldeen said. It managed to bounce towards the Oddish and hit it with its horn.

"Oddish, Sleep Powder!" the Oddish's trainer, a boy, called.

"Oddish," the Oddish said softly. It fired off some sparkling powder.

"Gol gol goldeen?" the Goldeen said as the powder descended on it. The Goldeen didn't fall asleep, but it did slow down.

"Okay, that's enough," the girl said. "I really should be going now. Goldeen return!" She fired a red beam of energy from her Pokéball and the Goldeen vanished.

"Hmph," the boy muttered. "She knew she was going to lose."

**Author's Annotation:** Take a shot every time I write "Cerulean Gym" in this chapter. Actually, please don't. I don't want to be responsible for the consequences.

I've always wondered how Pokémon Gyms worked. They're always based around a certain type, so wouldn't it get exhausting sticking to that particular type and having trainer after trainer beat you purely by exploiting the type advantage? It doesn't sound like a particularly enjoyable profession.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

"Well," Boris said. "This place is cool."

I nodded in agreement. This place _was_ cool. Actually, speaking of cool...

I walked over to the edge of the pool and took off my shoes and socks. Then, I dipped my bare feet into the pool.

The weather had been quite hot lately, and this felt soooo good.

Rachel did the same thing.

We both sat there, enjoying the coolness of the pool.

Suddenly, I knew what was going to happen next. I took a deep breath and held it, just as Boris pushed both Rachel and I in the back.

"Yaaahhh!" Rachel cried. We both fell in the pool.

Oh, that was so cheap! And sooooooo not funny.

Michael may be the big joker of our group, but Boris likes to joke, too.

Rachel surfaced just about immediately. I stayed under, still holding my breath.

Up above, I saw Boris leaning over the pool. Probably worried, because I hadn't come up yet.

I kicked off the bottom of the pool, surfaced, grabbed Boris' arm, and pulled him in too.

"Huh? YAAAHHH!" he yelled.

Rachel and I floated there, laughing. Boris surfaced with an angry look on his face.

"Okay, that wasn't fair," he said.

We all suddenly started laughing at once.

We had all been under a huge amount of stress lately, and it felt good to just have fun.

"Hey! Didn't you hear? Out of the pool! We're about to fight!"

I looked up to see who had said that.

Standing on one of the platforms that were floating on the water was a girl, maybe a little younger than us, who had orange hair.

That must have been Misty. And she was giving us a pretty sour look.

We quickly got out of the pool.

"Okay!" Misty said. "Let's make this fight one Pokémon versus one!"

"Okay!" another girl said. She was standing on another platform. "I choose... Magnemite!" She opened a Pokéball and a Magnemite emerged.

"Ha! Starmie, go!" Misty opened her Pokéball, and out came a Starmie.

Those were two very strange Pokémon, let me tell you. The Magnemite floated in mid-air and made weird buzzing sounds. It looked like a ball with two magnets on either side of it, one big eye, and screws sticking out of it. Overall, a very strange-looking Pokémon.

The Starmie, on the other hand, was basically a huge starfish with a red jewel in the middle.

"Magnemite, Tackle!"

The weird, buzzing Pokémon suddenly rushed forward. Don't ask me how it could float like that.

WHAM!

It hit the Starmie and the Starmie fell backwards.

"Starmie, Tackle!"

The Starmie leaped through the air, spinning round and round, faster and faster!

WHAM!

It hit the Magnemite.

That was weird, too. Both these Pokémon had used the same move, but in different ways.

"Starmie, Water Gun!"

"Quick Magnemite! Sonic Boom!"

The Starmie jumped into the water, then surfaced again and started firing water out of one of its 'arms', or whatever they were. The Magnemite suddenly released a huge wave of sound, straight towards the Starmie!

The Starmie was knocked underwater.

At the same time, the Magnemite was hit by the Water Gun.

"Hi, enjoying yourselves?"

I jumped. It was Daisy.

"Oh, yep," Rachel said.

I noticed Boris had gone an incredibly bright red.

"You seem to have had an unexpected encounter with the pool," Daisy said, eying our still-dripping clothes.

"Um, yeah. Something like that," I said, blushing slightly. "Well, I suppose we'd better go home and get changed before we all catch a cold."

"Okay, thanks for your visit!" Daisy said. "Now, I'm supposed to be barracking for my sis."

As we left, we heard her call out, "Come on Misty!"

_Misty's her sister?_ I thought.

"Aaawww... why'd you have to go and do that?" Boris said. He was slowly returning to his normal color.

"You like Daisy, don't you?" Rachel said.

Boris became red again.

**Author's Annotation:** Daisy was one of Misty's sisters in the anime. These stories are mostly based on the games Red/Blue, but with some elements from the anime mixed in such as Daisy.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

I was extremely nervous. We were in an alley the next day. It was the same alley in which I met The Muks the first time.

It was morning.

˂So, when are these guys supposed to show up?˃ Michael asked.

"Pretty soon," I answered. "They should be here any-"

"Hi!"

I turned around. There they were. All six of them.

They all headed towards us.

"So," TM1 said. "Are you ready?"

"Yep, we're ready," I said, trying to sound strong.

I noticed that all of The Muks were staring at Bounce and Blitz.

"So... so those are Mews," TM1 said.

˂I suppose all your Pokémon are Muks, right?˃ Michael asked.

"No, we haven't got any Muks."

˂Then why'd you call yourselves, 'The Muks'?˃

"'Cause we stink!" all six of The Muks said together. Okay, these kids were too weird.

"Let's just get this over with," I said. Then, I narrowed my eyes. "You haven't told anyone about Bounce and Blitz, have you?"

"No," TM1 said.

"We'll have to make you promise to keep it that way," Boris said.

TM1 nodded. "Yes, we promise. But first, we have a certain battle rule we'd like to tell you about."

Another boy stepped forward. I think it was TM... oh, never mind. I don't know which TM he was.

"In this battle, to make it more about strength than strategy, the two Pokémon battling at one time must be of the same type," he said. "So an Oddish couldn't fight a Rattata, because they're not the same type."

"Why do we have to agree to that?" Rachel asked.

"We could just go out and tell everyone about... about those two Mews," TM1 pointed out. "You follow this rule, and we'll keep them a secret."

Blackmail. Great. But what could we do? Refuse?

I sighed. "Okay. We agree." I turned to my friends. "Who wants to go first?"

Boris stepped forward. "Me." He started morphing.

His skin became green with darker green patches, he fell onto all fours, and he started to shrink.

He morphed into his battle morph, Bulbasaur.

I noticed Bounce and Blitz morphing, too. They were going into their Nidoran morphs. I suppose they didn't want to take the risk of being seen by anyone passing by.

"Bulbasaur, eh?" TM1 said. "TM2? Your fight!"

TM2 stepped forward. TM1 pulled a Pokédex out of his pocket. He handed it to TM2.

TM2 opened it. "Great, we haven't got many grass Pokémon, but I suppose this'll have to do." He pressed a button and a Pokéball appeared out of thin air.

They stored all their Pokémon by computer! I wondered how many they had.

"Pokéball, go!" TM2 threw the Pokéball. It fired a red ray which turned into a Bellsprout.

"Bell?"

"Bellsprout, Vine Whip!"

Bellsprout lashed out with its vines, but Boris was too quick. He bounded aside easily, then Tackled it.

"Bellsprout, Poison Powder!"

I saw Boris' eyes go wide as the Bellsprout fired off a cloud of powder straight for him.

He closed his eyes as the powder hit, but then opened them again, unaffected.

Then I realized it. Of course! Bulbasaur is a poison-type Pokémon as well as a grass-type. You can't poison a poison Pokémon!

Boris raced forward, whipping Bellsprout with his own vines.

I saw Bellsprout stagger, then collapse.

Bellsprout had lost, mostly because of TM2's big poison mistake.

**Author's Annotation:** Now begins the battles themselves. There's really not much actual plot to this book, sorry. It's definitely one of the weaker Pokémorphs stories, but I think at the time I felt it would be a good way to help the Pokémorphs "level up" a bit and stand more chance against the Weederpies.


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

˂Oh yeah! Did you see that? Did you _see_ that?˃ Boris boasted. ˂Ha ha! That Bellsprout didn't have a chance!˃

"Aw, Bellsprout!" TM2 pouted. "Return!"

TM1 shook his head. "That Pokémon was one of our weakest."

Boris bounded back towards us, staying in morph.

"Okay, who wants to fight next?" I asked. I wanted to be one of the last to battle. I wasn't scared, but I wanted to give the others the choice to go before me.

˂Me!˃ A blue Nidoran leaped forward. ˂Me!˃

"Which Mew is that?" TM1 asked.

"That's Blitz," I answered.

"Hmmm... poison Pokémon. TM4, you can battle."

TM4, one of the two female members of the gang, looked surprised, then happy. "Okay, what poison Pokémon have we got?" She opened up the Pokédex and looked inside. "I know! This one!" She grabbed the Pokéball that appeared and threw it, yelling, "Zubat, go!"

"Zzzzuuuuu!" the Zubat screamed as it appeared. It hovered in the air, staring at Blitz. Or at least, I _think_ it was staring at Blitz. It didn't seem to have any eyes.

˂Alright, come on! I'll take ya on!˃ Blitz tensed up, ready to attack. Then, he leaped! He scratched at the Zubat, but it dodged.

"Zubat, Leech Life!"

The Zubat dove at Blitz.

˂Little B! Look out!˃ Bounce called.

_Little B_. I had heard Bounce and Blitz call each other 'Little B' and 'Big B'. Must be some kind of brother-nickname-thing.

Little B - er, Blitz - scooted out of the way. The Zubat started rising into the air again.

Blitz turned and scratched it from behind.

"Zuuuuuuuuubat!" the Zubat cried in pain. It managed to get into the air, though.

"Zubat, Supersonic!"

The Zubat opened its mouth, then let out a horrifying high-pitched scream. Of course, Zubats use that to see. I suppose because they don't have any eyes.

The sound didn't bother me much, but Blitz suddenly lay his ears flat against his skull. I saw Boris, Bounce, and Michael start shivering. A Pokémon's hearing is much better than ours. I could only imagine what they were going through.

The Zubat stopped. Blitz was staggering around now, confused. As I watched, he leaped forward and tried to scratch the side of a dumpster.

"Yeah! Zubat, Bite!"

"Blitz! Watch out!" Rachel called.

Blitz's ears pricked up at the sound. He blinked, then shook his head to clear out the confusion.

The Zubat dove. It opened its mouth, ready to use its sharp teeth.

˂Huh? Whoa!˃ Blitz cried.

The Zubat hit him! It sank its teeth into Blitz's back.

"NIIIIIII!" Blitz yelled. ˂AAAHHHHH!˃

He ran right at the dumpster, with the Zubat still latched onto his back.

WHAM!

He ran head-first into the dumpster. He hit it so hard he made a dent, and the Zubat was thrown forward.

WHAM!

The Zubat hit the dumpster, then slumped to the ground, stunned.

"No! Zubat! Supersonic!"

˂Ha HA! Gotcha!˃ Blitz started scratching the Zubat again and again.

"Zubat! Return!"

The Zubat melted into red energy and then went back into the Pokéball.

"Zubat..." TM4 said. "Are you okay?"

˂YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! I DID IT!˃ Blitz cried. ˂HA HA! I can beat anyone!˃

**Author's Annotation:** Having your Pokédex linked up to your PC Pokémon storage is awfully convenient. I'd kill to have that ability in the games. I don't remember if I saw something like it on the anime or if I just made it up for this story, but it's a nice way of explaining how The Muks can access so many Pokémon at once.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

˂Yeah! Cool work, Blitz!˃ Michael said. ˂My turn!˃ He stepped forward.

TM1 looked angry. He started muttering to himself, then made a Pokéball appear from the Pokédex. "TM3, your turn! You'll have to use this, as it's the only fighting Pokémon we've got."

TM3 sighed. He took the Pokéball and threw it, yelling, "Pokéball, go!"

Out of the Pokéball came a... Machop!

"Maaaaaachop!" It immediately Karate Chopped Michael.

˂YOW!˃ Michael cried, rubbing his eye. But then, he did a Karate Chop of his own.

The two kept exchanging Karate Chops. It was Michael's strongest move, and probably the Machop's only move.

It was quite a boring fight.

Finally, TM3 called, "Machop return!"

Machop was sucked back into the Pokéball.

"Okay, I can stand losing, but I can't stand a boring fight!" TM3 said. "You win."

TM1 gave him a dirty look. "You might have won!"

TM3 just shrugged like he didn't care.

TM1 frowned angrily, then turned to us. "Okay, who's next?"

Bounce stepped forward. ˂I'll go-˃ He was interrupted by a sound behind us.

We all turned. It was a guy, wearing tattered-looking jeans and a shirt with swirling rainbow colors. "Whoa, dude!"

˂Uh oh,˃ Michael said in private thought-speak. I'm not sure who else he said it to, or whether he said it to The Muks.

"Hippie," TM1 whispered. "Great."

I looked at him over my shoulder. He looked worried and annoyed.

"Bounce, Blitz, Michael, Boris, scare him off," I whispered.

I could barely hear myself whisper. But Boris, Blitz, Bounce, and Michael, being Pokémon, could hear it perfectly.

They raced forward.

"Bulba! BULBA!" Boris cried. He whipped at the air in front of the hippie with his vines.

The four of them did their best to look deadly.

"Whoa, cool," the guy said. "They, like, wanna hang out."

"Bellsprout, go!" TM1 threw the Pokéball containing Bellsprout, releasing it.

Bellsprout looked horribly weak from battling Boris, but walked over to the hippie.

"Bellsprout, Sleep Powder!"

Bellsprout fired some sparkling dust.

"Dude, that's, like..." He fell over, asleep.

"Cool! Nice work!" I said.

TM1 grinned, then made Bellsprout return to his Pokéball. "Anyway, who was going to battle next?"

˂Me,˃ Bounce said.

"Another poison Pokémon? Well, TM5! Your shot."

TM5 grinned. He made a Pokéball appear from the Pokédex. "I don't know why you didn't use this Pokémon earlier," he said to TM4.

"'Cause I don't like it," TM4 answered simply.

"Beedrill, go!"

"Beeeeeeeee?" Beedrill appeared, and hovered in the air before Bounce.

"Beedrill, Fury Attack!"

Beedrill dove! Bounce stood there, then dodged at the last second.

"Beedrill, Focus Energy!"

Beedrill paused in mid-air as it performed the move. Bounce used this opportunity. He leaped! He hit it with a Horn Attack.

"Beedrill, Twin Needle!"

The Beedrill looked angry. It dove! Bounce started backing away, but he was right in front of the dumpster, so he couldn't go back.

The Beedrill brought its arm stingers forward, ready to hit Bounce. Closer... closer... closer...

˂Big B!˃ Blitz called.

Bounce leaped aside!

WHAM!

The Beedrill hit the dumpster, and its stingers went right in. It was stuck!

Bounce easily finished it off.

**Author's Annotation:** Oh, man. Oh wow. I'd forgotten about the hippie. I think this is the most cringe-inducing thing I've ever written. I'm so sorry.


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

Only two of us hadn't fought yet: Rachel and I.

"Do you wanna go next?" Rachel asked me.

"No, you can."

"Okay." She started morphing to Charmander.

As soon as the flame had appeared on her tail, TM1 said, "Ah, fire! TM7, you can fight."

TM7, the other female member of the gang, took a Pokéball out of the Pokédex. "Vulpix, go!"

˂Aaaawwwww... isn't it cute?˃ Rachel said to me in private thought-speak.

"Vulpix!" the Vulpix said.

"Vulpix, Quick Attack!"

The Vulpix raced forward, knocking Rachel off of her feet. Rachel was startled, but got up.

"CHAR!" She fired a ball of flame out of her mouth. The Vulpix dodged.

"Vulpix, Tail Whip!"

The Vulpix whipped at Rachel with its tail. In response, Rachel jumped forward and scratched viciously at it.

The Vulpix jumped back.

"Vulpix, Ember!"

The Vulpix opened its mouth and fired off its own ball of fire. Rachel dodged and leaped in, scratching the poor Vulpix again and again.

"Vulpix, return!" TM7 said quickly.

"Why did you stop?!" TM1 demanded.

"Because the poor thing was getting hurt!" TM7 said. "She looked down at the Pokéball in her hands. "Aw, are you okay Vulpix? Don't worry..." She kept talking like that as TM1 turned to us.

"Your turn," he said to me.

I started morphing. I shrank and grew a jagged tail. My cheeks went red and the rest of me went yellow, with some brown fur on my back and tail.

I felt the electrical surge within me. It was like I had grabbed a power line, only instead of being hurt by the electricity, I was harnessing it.

I was a Pikachu.

TM1 grinned. "Electric. I've got just the Pokémon." He took out a Pokéball from the Pokédex, then threw it.

Out of the Pokéball came... another Pokéball. Only it was bigger, about the height of my Pikachu morph.

And it had eyes. Voltorb!

"Voltorb!" it said.

"Voltorb, Sonic Boom!" TM1 called.

The Voltorb fired a huge wave of sound. Right for me!

WHAM!

I was knocked over. I quickly got up, then released a wave of energy.

The Voltorb's determined expression suddenly became a horrified one. I had paralyzed it!

"Voltorb, Tackle!"

The Voltorb suddenly rushed forward - don't ask me how - and hit me. I quickly raced forward and hit it in return.

BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP!

_What the...?_ I quickly glanced around for the source of that noise. It was TM1's Pokédex. He opened it.

"Voltorb has just learned Self-Destruct," it said in a mechanical voice.

"Cool," TM1 said. "Let's try it out! Voltorb! Self-Destruct!"

Gee, he must know a lot about Pokémon. In case you didn't know, I was being sarcastic.

"VollllllTORB!" The Voltorb exploded! The shock-wave hit me with full-force. I was thrown back.

WHAM!

I hit the dumpster.

My vision went black for a second, but then when it returned, I could see the Voltorb on its side with a silly grin across its face. It was definitely knocked out.

"Voltorb!" TM1 cried in horror. He brought it back into its Pokéball.

I struggled to my feet.

˂Are you okay?˃ Bounce asked, running over.

˂Yeah, I think so,˃ I answered.

˂Now _that_ was a blast,˃ Boris said. ˂Those Voltorbs sure are strong.˃ He lowered his thought-speak voice. ˂They always knock themselves out, though.˃

˂We won! We won! Wewonwewonwewon!˃ Blitz cried, jumping around.

"Don't count on it," TM1 said. "I've still got another Pokémon I want to use."

˂But... but it's supposed to be six on six!˃ I said.

TM1 shrugged. "So? I changed the rules!" He took a Pokéball out of the Pokédex. "Raticate! Go!"

The other Muks looked horrified.

The huge rat appeared. "Raticate!"

"Raticate, go get them!" TM1 said.

But the Raticate didn't. Instead, it turned on its master.

**Author's Annotation:** I'm not sure why they're still fighting. After 4 wins shouldn't they have won the competition? It would make sense that it was a best-of-6 setup, so Rachel and Lisa shouldn't have had to fight at all. Oh well, let's just sit back and enjoy the Pokémon battles.


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

"TM1, there's a reason why we never take Raticate out of the computer!" TM4 said. "It's too strong! We can't control it!"

The Raticate leaped right for TM1's face.

"Yaarrgh!" TM1 cried, knocking the Raticate away with an arm.

The Raticate stood there, daring anyone to challenge it.

No one moved.

"Raticate, return!" TM1 said finally.

The red beam shot from his Pokéball.

The Raticate leaped out of the way!

"Bulba!" Boris raced forward, hitting the Raticate with his vines, and then wrapping it up.

"Raticate, return!" TM1 tried again.

"Rrrrraticate!" The Raticate broke free! The red beam missed again!

Bounce and Blitz leaped forward, starting to fight with it.

Rachel, Michael, and I joined in.

I was quite weak from that battle with the Voltorb, but I still tried.

The Raticate just kicked me away.

"Char!" Rachel spat fire at it.

The Raticate was stunned, but then shrugged off the flames and tried to bite Rachel. She only just managed to dodge.

Michael punched it on the jaw, and the Raticate froze for a moment.

I took the opportunity to shock it, but my attack wasn't very powerful. I was too weak.

Still, it did hurt the Raticate. Just enough to allow Bounce and Blitz to start scratching and tackling it.

"Rrrrraticate!" It turned and bit Bounce!

˂AAAAAHHHH!˃

The Raticate spun around and bit Blitz!

˂AAAAAHHHH!˃

Bounce and Blitz both staggered back. Boris and Rachel jumped forward.

"Bulbasaur!" Boris whipped it a few times with his vines.

"Charmander!" Rachel kept spitting flames at it.

"Mankey!" Michael raced forward and scratched it.

"Pikachu!" I released a wave of energy, paralyzing it.

"Nidoran!" Bounce leaped back into the action, attacking it with his horn.

"Nidoran!" Blitz followed his brother, biting it and filling it with poison.

"Rrraticate?" The Raticate tried to shrug us off. No such luck.

We just kept hammering it with varying attacks. After all, we had beaten Scythers and Pinsirs. We could beat a Raticate, couldn't we?

The Raticate suddenly rushed forward, faster than my eye could follow.

WHAM!

I was knocked down. So were Rachel, Boris, and Michael. Bounce and Blitz had dodged just in time.

They both hit it from behind, and the Raticate fell on its stomach.

The rest of us got up and started attacking it again.

The Raticate got up with surprising determination. It glared at me. Then, it leaped forward, about to sink its fangs into me!

"Hold it right there, rodent."

The Raticate stopped in mid-air. One of The Muks had grabbed it by the tail! They all worked to hold it still as TM1 said, for the third time, "Raticate, return!"

This time, the Raticate was hit by the beam. It turned into red energy and was sucked into the Pokéball.

**Author's Annotation:** This is a bit of a nod to the badge level restrictions from the games. If you have a traded Pokémon, it will start to disobey you at certain levels unless you have the right Gym Badges. I guess The Muks should start working on that.


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

I was pretty tired. So were my friends.

We all started demorphing.

TM1 had an unreadable expression on his face. He glared at the Pokéball in his hand, then put it back in the Pokédex.

"Well, that was close!" Boris said when we had finished demorphing.

TM1 turned to us. "Yes, and it would have been too close if it weren't for you changing fr... er, Pokémorphs. Thank you."

"Uh, you're welcome," I said.

TM1 looked down at the ground. "You won the battles. Congratulations." He smiled.

All the other Muks nodded in agreement.

"I guess we should try and get a few badges so we can control Raticate," TM1 continued. "We'll train more, and now we're more determined than ever as Pokémon trainers!" Then, he added more quietly, "Although some of us could probably be Pokémon breeders instead of trainers." He glanced at TM7 when he said that.

"And some of us should go to Pokémon college," TM7 muttered under her breath.

"Well, we're glad to help!" Rachel said.

"Those were great battles!" TM4 said. "Even though we lost."

˂Yeah,˃ Michael said. ˂I'm glad. 'Cause we tried our best in them!˃

"Well, we better go," TM1 said. "Nice meeting you all! Friends?" He held out his hand.

"Friends," I said. I shook his hand.

I turned to discover that Boris and TM2 were deeply involved in a discussion about computers.

"Oh," Boris said, noticing the sour look I was giving him. "Yeah, we'd better be going."

The Muks turned to walk away.

"Oh, and TM1?" I asked.

TM1 stopped walking. "Yeah?"

"Say 'hi' to your dad for me."

––––––––––

Remember that hippie? Well, he started up a club called 'Hanging With Pokémon'. He keeps claiming that two Nidorans, a Mankey, and a Bulbasaur all gave him the inspiration in a weird dream.

Anyway, this club became the most popular Pokémon club in Cerulean City in just two weeks. Weird, huh?

At least, that's what Rachel told me. She made me sit next to her while she showed me the Internet.

She does that at least once every two weeks.

Anyway, we went to a Search site, and I typed 'The Muks'. Don't ask me why.

It turns out that TM2 runs a web site for The Muks.

After looking through the site for a while, we found the chat room. We entered it, and there were two people in it.

One was Boris2000, and the other was TheMuk2.

Boris and TM2 were chatting in the chat room.

Rachel turned to me. "Looks like we've got some new and permanent friends."

**THE END!**

**Author's Annotation:** It's funny just how dated fiction involving the internet gets. Animorphs #16: The Warning has a chapter featuring a chatroom, and it's pretty amusing reading it nowadays.

Also the Pokémorphs really don't seem interested in collecting new morphs. Think about how many Pokémon they could have acquired thanks to The Muks!

But anyway, this book. This was not a good book. It was pointless filler involving side characters who I don't think are even used again. The battles all feel incredibly forced and I think I just threw the Raticate event in there while writing because even I was getting bored of the story. Oh well, I was a kid. Yes, that's going to be my excuse for everything.

Next up we have a Blitz book, Pokémorphs #5: The Attack! And we get back to fighting Weederpies in the biggest battle yet! Yay!


End file.
